Grades 4-5

Behind the Screen Tour

60 minutes, 10-150 students, $8/student ($3/student for Title I)
Students learn about how moving images are made, marketed, and shown, while discovering the many careers open to them in the moving-image industries. Under the guidance of a Museum educator, students actively explore and discuss artifacts and artworks, and experiment with hands-on interactive experiences and demonstrations. This tour serves as an ideal introduction to the Museum and its collection, and discussions can be focused to address the class’ specific curricular needs.

Behind the Screen Tour & Screening Program

90 minutes, 10-150 students, $9/student ($3/student for Title I)
Optional: $175 fee for live musical accompaniment
Along with a guided tour of the Museum’s core exhibition, students experience a historic film or television episode in one of the Museum’s state-of-the-art movie theaters as part of the Screening America program. These screenings, which include a post-screening discussion, use historic media to help teach English, English as a Second Language, and Social Studies, with a focus on American history.

Choose either an episode of I Love Lucy ("Job Switching," 1952), which explores women at work in the fifties, or a Charlie Chaplin film (The Immigrant, 1917), which explores screen comedy and the immigrant experience. Live musical accompaniment is available for The Immigrant.

Behind the Screen Tour & Motion Workshop

90 minutes, 10-90 students, $9/student ($3/student for Title I)
Students build on their experiences of a guided tour of the Museum’s core exhibition, and engage in hands-on experiences that help them understand the science that underlies our perception of moving images. Students create their own thaumatrope, a Victorian-era optical toy, to take home with them.

The Jim Henson Exhibition: Guided Tour & Workshop

45–60 minutes (recommended), 10-30 participants, $11/student ($3/student for Title I)
In this inquiry-based tour of The Jim Henson Exhibition, students explore the creative genius and legacy of Jim Henson, which includes puppets, character sketches, scripts, interactive experiences, and costumes from the worlds of Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock, and more. Grades 1–5 can select an optional supplementary Charter Design Workshop inspired by the concept of the Anything Muppets, a modular system used to design extra characters in Sesame Street.

The Jim Henson Exhibition: Guided Tour & Screening Program

2 hours, 10-70 participants, $11/student ($3/student for Title I)
Along with a guided tour of The Jim Henson Exhibition, students learn about the science, technology, engineering, art, and math behind the creation of imaginary worlds through puppetry, with a screening of the documentary Jim Henson: Behind the Seams (2014) in one of the Museum’s state-of-the-art movie theaters. This program is a dynamic complement to any STEAM curriculum.

Self-guided Visit

90 minutes (recommended), 10-50 students, $7/student ($3/student for Title I )
Groups will receive an introduction from a Museum educator, and then explore any of the Museum’s general-admission exhibitions with their teachers and chaperones.